Westwards

Western Health (WH) is a rapidly growing health service. The planned growth from approved capital projects alone means that the nursing and midwifery workforce is expected to need to increase by over 1,600 FTE over the next 6 years. This is in addition to any expansion to current services and business as usual recruitment.

A strategy to build the nursing and midwifery workforce over the years leading up to these significant milestones is required, as it is not possible to recruit this number of positions using a ‘just in time’ approach and our current recruitment practices.

There is a significant shortage of nurses and midwives within Australia, and this is predicted to worsen into the future. Without a program to gradually build this workforce over time, Western Health would carry a significant risk of not being able to operate the expected level of service within these new facilities after construction is complete. The Westwards program will be an important enabler for other workforce strategies including engagement with universities to increase student numbers.

Aim

Westwards will establish an enhanced nursing and midwifery Pool at Western Health, where additional staff are recruited beyond the budgeted requirements of the health services. It is proposed that these additional staff will be able to be sent to other health services to support their staffing requirements via the establishment of service level agreements.